As a new affirmative-consent law took effect this month in California, schools across the country are scrambling to create programs to educate students and administrators about the new standard: that both partners need to enthusiastically agree to every step of a sexual encounter.
Not so at Colgate, where an extracurricular program, “Yes Means Yes,” has been in place since 2010.
NBC.com covered the program today, describing participants as “rugby players, theater kids, frat brothers, and hipsters — of all races, sexual orientations, and genders,” together on an otherwise-typical Wednesday night, calmly discussing sex.
The program, developed from a senior thesis by Jaclyn Berger ’09 , is based on a 2008 anthology called Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape. The six-week-long course, which earns physical education credit for participants, is one of many initiatives at Colgate designed to promote healthy sexuality on campus.
Watch the video below, which features Emily Hawkins ’15, Caroline Hurwitz ’17, and Nicholas Yap ’16, all who serve as “Yes Means Yes” facilitators. Read the full story at NBC.com.